#but.... -gestures at jee- and. -gestures at bato | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

lizardlicks · 1 year ago

Text

Nine People You'd Like To Get To Know Better

I was tagged by @blu3berrydraws, @erisenyo, and @paramouradrift lol thanks guys!

Relation Status: Married to my best friend and high school sweetheart

Favorite Color: green. any green. give me a green I will show you how beautiful it is

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: Sweet tooth is currently satisfied. Spicy is just kind of a bonus. I think savory is looking good rn.

Three ships: Zukka is the obvious current answer, but I am a habitual multishipper by nature, so here are three ships that I very much enjoy which might not be on your radars!

First is @ablueeyedarcher's fault: How/Piandao. The SS CapyPanda. Are they minor characters who only show up for two or three episodes a piece? Yes. Do I care? No. Let them smooch.

Number two is Jee/Bato. Look. Jee is a tired gay man, He has served his time. Let him get out there and get the good dick. He's not a home wrecker though, he's not gonna get between whatever Bato has going on with Hakoda... unless maybe they invited him to get between them more literally.

Third is Zuko/Kuei. I know the the post canon comics pitted these two sad bitches against each other but listen, here me out. They're both young, inexperienced leaders dropped head first into navigating attempting to deescalate their countries post a century of hostilities with minimal helpful guidance, and they were also both used and betrayed by the father figures they we supposed to trust and rely on. What if when left alone, face to face, they bonded over venting their similar frustrations? What if that bonding turned into an unlikely friendship? What if that friendship tripped and rolled down a rocky hill of something more and they ended up in a secret affair between the heads of two of the world's most powerful states? What if it all came crashing in on them, but they couldn't untangle their very real feelings from their duty as leaders? What then?

First ever ship: Oh snap this is reaching back into Ye Old memory banks here. If I'm being totally honest I think it was the pink and green (later white, much later all the rest of the damn colors) rangers from the original run of the American version of Power Rangers. The internet didn't exist as we know it today so it was just a group of a half-dozen 7-9 year olds G O S S I P I N G on the playground between rounds of pretending to be actual velociraptors.

Last Song:

youtube

(Two Steps From Hell is my go-to writing times tune everything out music)

Last Film: Technically it was me and the rest of the adults post Thanksgiving diner keeping a running background commentary going on the worldbuilding choices in the Paw Patrol Movie that the little kids insisted on watching. Real answer, the last movie I sat down to watch with intention was Across the Spiderverse.

Last thing I Googled: solar chistmas lights. My coworker was complaining that her only outdoor outlet shares a load with an indoor one (which?? rude!) and her partner wouldn't let her put up more Christmas lights. I had to show her. The way her face lit up as she IMMEDIATELY zoomed to Amazon and started filling her cart. Apologies to her poor family and neighbors, but I definitely made her week and possibly her entire New Year.

Currently Reading: Hey did you know that @erisenyo is already releasing stuff for zukki week because she is. you should definitely go read that.

Currently Watching: Rewatching Blue Eye Samurai while spouse watches it for the first time. He's been big into old samurai and wuxia films since I can remember so I'm just sitting here anticipating his reactions to every easter egg and trope call back they've stuffed into this show and also spotting things I missed on the first round.

Currently Consuming: Peppermint mocha and a cheese, egg and sausage tornado. Don't question me.

Currently Craving: My cozy bed. Also a nice big bowl of curry.

Currently Working On: The next chapter of Learn to Carry Love. I'm so so so close to the finish aaargh!

Current Obsession(s): *Gestures at my blog*

And with that I'm gonna taaaaaaag @ablueeyedarcher @rainbowbarnacle @paintsplattere @allgremlinart @saccharineomens @thepioden @siggymcpissyface @curlicuecal and @yandereleorio! No obligation of course, just for a fun time if you wanna :D

#tag game #there were actually a couple different versions of this game with different questions between all the posts I was tagged in #so I combined them #anyway I have so many more odd ball ships where those came from you should ask me about them #gonna file this under #lizard is starting to ramble #Youtube

14 notes · View notes

advocaado · 6 years ago

Text

Day 15: Courting (of a sort)

@thirtydaysofzutara

This is the continuation of Day 7: Historical AU

Find the whole collection on fanfiction.net User: Advocaat

August

Katara threw open the doors to the Ember Steelworks. So far she hadn’t had much luck in her quest to rid her town of this horrid company, but she was going to continue to harangue its intolerable owner until he finally caved and slunk back to wherever it was he came from. She was determined.

She found him in the usual place. He was testing another rifle while his bookkeeper and personal secretary, a former navy lieutenant named Jee, stood by.

Seeing her coming, Zuko waved his hand, dismissing Jee. “Katara,” he greeted her as she joined him by his makeshift firing range. “Right on schedule, as always.”

It took every ounce of Katara’s self-control not to punch the mill’s owner in his smug face. It had only been a few days and already he was treating her like she was his 2pm meeting.

Aggressively straightening her miles of skirts to stop herself from doing something violent to the young man in front of her, Katara brought her eyes up to his and gave him a look full of murder. “Is there a problem with me coming to check in on you every day?” she questioned in a dangerously calm voice. “Because if you don’t like how we do things in this town, you’re invited to leave it.”

Zuko’s lips curved into an infuriating smile that fell upon her like a ray of light from heaven. “Absolutely no problem at all. Your visits are a pleasure and a joy.”

Katara ground her teeth together in anger. Oh, how she hated this man. No matter how big an inconvenience she tried to be to him—how much she surely annoyed him—he never showed any disdain for her. It was quickly driving her up a wall.

“Splendid,” she ground out, her eyes flashing to show exactly how little she meant the word. “Then I’ll continue to drop by and make sure you’re running this mill honestly and fairly. And if I catch even a whiff that you’re exploiting any of the labor you’ve hired or are inflating prices, I’ll have you thrown to the dogs faster than you can draw a revolver. Am I clear?”

Zuko’s smile faltered just slightly. It was only for an instant but Katara caught it. He didn’t let on any change in demeanor however when he answered, “I don’t expect you will take any fault with the way I run this mill, but I’ll keep your promise in mind.”

Katara merely nodded stiffly and then left him to make a show of inspecting the compound as she’d threatened to.

She would expose his villainy. It was only a matter of time until his angelic façade cracked and he showed who he really was. She would be ready when that time came.

September

Katara was confused. It had been a month now since the Ember Steel Company had moved into their town and so far nothing at all dastardly had been done by its proprietor. This was perplexing to her because just that morning she’d picked up a copy of the national press at the general store and the front page story was about how a town just a few miles from their own was on the verge of economic collapse due to hiked up steel prices. Everyone knew that Ember Steel had a monopoly on the steel industry. The article even specifically named Ember Steel as the root of the problem.

So then why weren’t they seeing the same thing in their own town? Perhaps, she conjectured, Zuko was waiting until he had a firm enough grip on their town before he showed his true colors. Or maybe her father’s railroad deal was keeping Zuko too busy to concoct any evil plots. It would explain why her dad had acted so certain that the company moving in wouldn’t be harmful to them.

Still, Katara could abide by her father’s decision. Sooner or later, they would begin to go the route of all those other towns. She needed to convince Zuko to leave before that happened.

October

“Why are you always out here shooting guns, anyway? Shouldn’t you be overseeing the building of the tracks?”

Zuko lowered the rifle he’d been pointing at the poor, beaten up target and gave her an inquisitive glance with yellow eyes.

“I mean, eight times out of ten when I come to visit you’re out here shooting these things.” She gestured to the case of firearms at their feet. “Shouldn’t you be focusing more on your job?”

Zuko straightened into a more natural position and places a hand on his hip. “This ismy job.”

Katara blinked back at him. “Pardon?”

Zuko nodded and held up the rifle for her to see. “All the metal you see here is made by our company. Not many people know this, but Ember Steel is actually part of a weapons manufacturing conglomerate called Empire. Originally, Empire was just a firearms company, but over time, my father’s wealth and prestige grew and he began acquiring steel mills so he could expand his influence and better control the means of production. I prefer to work more on the steel end of things, but I also build rifles and pistols for government use.”

Katara’s eyes widened as she absorbed what Zuko had just told her. “Wait. You said your ‘father’. Does that mean Ozai’s your dad?”

Zuko confirmed this by nodding. “That’s right.”

Katara took a step back in shock. So, that’s how Zuko became branch head at such a young age. Being Ozai’s son would make him heir to the Ember Steel empire.

More than that, it made him the son of a dirty crook.

Katara’s lips pulled down into a severe frown. “Well,” she said, recovering somewhat. “I’m sure the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. You’ll show your true colors one of these days, and I’ll be ready.”

With that, she turned around and marched away.

November

Katara’s teeth chattered as she walked down the packed-earth street to the general store. She needed to buy more feed for the chickens and she also needed to stop by the butcher’s and pick up some steaks. today was her father’s birthday and she’d promised to help her grandmother cook him a nice meal.

She tossed the heavy bag of feed over her shoulder and was preparing to move on to the butcher’s when the door to the general store opened suddenly and a figure collided with her. The impact wasn’t hard enough to be painful, but it knocked her back and the weight of the bag on her shoulder displaced her center of gravity. She resigned herself to falling right onto her rear when a hand appeared on her back and straightened her.

“Sorry,” Zuko’s apologetic voice rang in her ears and that’s when she realized exactly who it was that had run into her.

Katara had been all set to tell the person not to worry about it and thank them for catching her but now knowing that it was Zuko she closed her mouth and breezed past him without a word.

She’d made it to the street before Zuko caught up to her. “Wait, Katara!” he called as he hopped the short set of wooden steps down to the street and came up beside her. “I’m sorry for bumping into you. I didn’t realize you were right on the other side of the door.”

When she kept walking, Zuko merely sped up to keep pace with her. Katara shot him an annoyed look over her sack of chicken feed. She was cold, laden with eighteen pounds of dried corn, and she just wanted to finish her shopping and go home.

Zuko seemed to understand her predicament because he tentatively asked, “Um, are you okay? Do you need any help?”

Katara turned up her chin and continued walking. “You can help by leaving my town.”

Zuko exhaled a short, put-upon sigh and suddenly the weight of the sack on her shoulder disappeared. “I’ll carry this for you,” he said, not giving her any room to argue. “It’s the least I can do for running into you.”

Katara scowled at him but allowed him to help her. It would be far easier to carry the meat without the sack of feed weighing her down and if Zuko was willing to go out of his way to be her mule she supposed there was no reason to deny him.

The two walked in silence down the row of buildings to the butcher’s shop. Katara thought Zuko would make small talk or attempt to sweeten her with flattery but he didn’t. He did exactly as he’d promised, merely carrying her burden and giving her shoulders a break.

When they reached the butcher’s Zuko hopped up the short set of stairs ahead of her and opened the door for her. As Katara walked into the shop, she had to admit, however grudgingly, that even if he was an evil business tycoon’s son, Zuko was a gentleman. He entered behind her and dutifully kept step with her as she approached the counter.

“Well, if it isn’t Katara,” Bato, the owner of the shop, greeted her fondly. “I had an inkling I’d be seeing you today.”

Bato was an old friend of her dad’s. They’d been in the army together for a time back before her dad had met her mom and they’d remained the tightest of chums ever since. To Katara, Bato had always been something of an uncle figure and Bato accordingly treated her and her brother as his niece and nephew.

Bato’s eyes travelled past her to land on Zuko and one of his eyebrows rose. “But this is quite a curious development. I always knew I’d be seeing you in here with a man one of these days, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that one.”

Katara felt her cheeks flush and she leveled Bato with an unimpressed glare. “Please,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “I’d sooner eat my own hair than accept the affections of that son of a crook.

To her surprise, Bato threw his head back and laughed. When he’d composed himself, he shot a grin at Zuko and said, “You’re in for the long haul with this one. Prettiest girl in all the West, but with a stubborn streak as wide as the Mississippi. She gets it from her mother.”

Zuko merely offered Bato an amused smile, saying nothing. Katara ignored both of them and ordered her meat.

Her shopping done at last, Zuko dropped her off at her home, setting the sack of feed under the porch as instructed. Begrudgingly, she thanked him for his help. “Thanks, Zuko. It was kind of you to help me with my shopping.”

Zuko smiled and nodded. The chilly November wind tousled his hair and Katara inwardly kicked herself for thinking the picture he made standing out front of her family’s house with his hands in the pockets of his work trousers was quite fetching.

Annoyed at herself, Katara hurried inside and slammed the door shut behind her, determined not to waste a single thought on Zuko for the rest of the day.

December

“You know, Katara. I can’t help but notice that you’ve seemed a little more tolerant of Mr. Redford in recent weeks. I knew you’d warm to him sooner or later.”

Katara shot her father a glare across the table. “There has been nowarming, I assure you,” she corrected him promptly. “I’m treating him civilly simply because he has yet to do anything dastardly, but I’m confident that will change come spring.”

Hakoda raised his eyebrows at his daughter. “Oh?”

Katara nodded. “Spring is when demand for steel becomes the highest. He’d be a fool of a businessman not to take advantage of that.” She stuck her fork with force into a boiled carrot and the matter was dropped.

January

Katara shivered as she stepped into the warm steelworks and closed the doors tightly behind her to block out the chill. January was the coldest month of the year and she’d made a point of spending an increased amount of time at the mill to escape the weather.

The air inside the mill was cozy and warm from the forges and Katara unbuttoned her woolen frock coat with a happy sigh. No sooner had she pulled her arms from the sleeves, the garment was taken from her and placed neatly on a hook near the door. Katara made a show of taking her time to physically acknowledge Zuko’s presence. “Oh,” she said tonelessly when her eyes finally landed on him. “You’re still here.”

Zuko smiled and began walking away from her toward the stairs that led to the overlook where his office was situated. Katara followed out of habit and didn’t protest when a mug of hot milk with honey was deposited into her hands. She took a sip, shivering again as the pleasantly warm liquid heated her insides. “How’s progress going on the tracks?” she asked with honest curiosity as she lowered herself into the cushioned chair adjacent to Zuko’s desk. The chair had magically appeared one day several weeks ago and Katara suspected Zuko had put it there expressly for her use.

“Well, actually,” was he started. He pulled a sheet of paper from a cubby hole above his desk and laid it in front of her. “We’re ahead of schedule and predicted to remain that way so long as we don’t have to deal with any equipment malfunctions due to inclement weather.” He pointed to some numbers on the paper that Katara didn’t really understand but she didn’t let that on to him. “You father is looking to start laying the tracks come March so we’ve been organizing shipments for transport. The goal is to extend the rail service as far as Tofteville by the end of the summer.”

Katara raised her eyebrows at this. That was certainly an ambitious goal. Now that she thought about it, she did remember her father meeting with Tofteville’s mayor a few weeks ago. They’d been discussing timeframes for the building of a train station there.

Katara looked down at her mug pensively for a moment before looking back at Zuko and saying. “Well, then. I suppose it can’t be helped. I’ll have to endure your presence at least until the end of summer.” Setting her mug delicately beside the paper, she injected sternness into her voice and added, “But no longer.”

Zuko smiled. “Of course.”

February

“Don’t you dare even think of throwing that snowball at me or I’ll see to it that you’ll be quite sorry!” Katara warned as Zuko encroached on her, tossing the item in question up and down in his hand menacingly.

Zuko didn’t falter in his approach. “You nailed me in the head just a moment ago. It’s only fair that you be repaid in kind.”

Katara turned her nose up in a show of rebelliousness. “I wasn’t intending to hit you. I mistook your hair for a shaggy weasel is all. It was an honest mistake.”

Zuko gave her an unimpressed look. “You’d been talking to me just a minute earlier.”

Katara couldn’t help the grin that spread across her face at Zuko’s disgruntled expression. Apparently, Zuko didn’t find her grin in line with her professed innocence, because faster than she could react, a ball of puffy powder pelted her right in the chest.

Katara gasped in outrage and used her mittened hands to wipe the snow from the front of her coat. “Oh, it is on,” she called back to him, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Zuko just laughed and danced out of the way as she sent another snowball flying at him. Katara wasn’t deterred, though. She would make good on her threat of punishment.

March

Katara stopped in surprise when she heard voices from within Ember Steel Co.’s town office. Zuko hardly used the place so she didn’t pay it any mind on most days, but today it seemed he was in.

Curious, she walked closer and tried to hear what was being said. As far as she was concerned, if it was business of Zuko’s, it was business of hers.

Sure enough, one of the voices belonged to Zuko. It was difficult to hear what was being said but he sounded annoyed—even angry. The other voice belonged to a woman and it was one she didn’t recognize.

“…know…going…be impressed,” the unknown female was saying. Her voice lacked the edge of irritation that Zuko’s held. She sounded calm and composed.

“He doesn’t…anymore,” Zuko shot back. “…paperwork…gone through. I’m…Ember out.”

“That…Zuko!” This time the woman’s voice sounded far less composed. “… …Mai? …you just…abandon...?”

There was a long moment of silence after that. Katara wondered what they were arguing about. She’d never heard Zuko sound angry before. Who on earth could he be talking to?

Suddenly, the door was thrown open and Katara had to dodge out of the way as a woman came storming out of the office. She wore an expensive-looking velvet gown of deep burgundy and her makeup was immaculate. Her eyes caught Katara’s own as she descended the wooden steps and Katara could see that they were a rich honey-amber. The woman looked her over briefly then sniffed disdainfully and brushed past her without a word.

A moment later, Zuko appeared in the doorway in his typical cotton shirt and heavy work-trousers. His eyes followed the woman as she disappeared down the street and Katara saw him sigh tiredly and raise a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose.

He must have been very distracted by whatever it was he and the woman had been arguing about because he didn’t even notice her standing there. He just grumbled something under his breath and went back inside, closing the door behind him with a soft click.

To be continued in Day 29.

#Zutara #Zutara Month 2018 #zk month 2018 #30 days of Zutara #part 2 of the Western AU #I'm really enjoying this AU #never thought I'd say that

74 notes · View notes